Understanding how much light to use.

I love lighting - I love the drama I can create with careful use of lights, and I love slowly crafting an image in the studio or on location - slowly layering up the light piece by piece until I reach what I think is perfection.  I firmly believe that an understanding of light is one of the basic foundations of success as a photographer.

A very elaborate and precise lighting setup - creates a great shot, but doesn't give the subject, or the photographer, much room to move!

However, sometimes light can be a straitjacket.  It can be very easy to end up in a situation where yourself and the subject can’t move because the light you’ve created is very restrictive.

Another dramatic lighting setup - only possible because Anthony Joshua can hold the top of a pull-up for ages!

An elaborate lighting setup can look fantastic, but in some cases your subject only has to move by a few inches to alter the look dramatically.  With a professional model or experienced celebrity, this isn’t a big deal - they’ll usually be experienced enough to use facial expressions and may be OK holding uncomfortable poses..  For almost everyone else, sitting in a rigid pose will be very unnatural, and will probably create expressions that look awful, and shots that aren’t great.

Ambient only lighting allows you, and your subject, much more flexibility to play around and find what works in the shot.

If you’re able to move around more, and are working with lighting that gives you more room to manoeuvre, the subject is much more able to express themselves.  Not only that, but both of you will probably spot other things to do, and rather than have to stay put where the lighting is, you can follow your inspiration.  True, you might be able to move the lighting, but if it’s complex, then by the time you’ve set it up again, the “moment” may well have passed.

Both of these images use a few lights - but setup in such a way that there's lots of freedom for the subject to move around

Essentially, what I’m getting at is something which has cropped up in my Logbook (more about these in a future post) time and time again when I write my “lessons/next steps/conclusion” - Narrative.  What’s actually happening in the frame is more important than what light you shot it in.  It’s certainly more important than whether you used a Profoto, a Bowens, a Godox, a flash, and LED, or an open fire. 

If you light something perfectly, but the subject is sitting very uncomfortably with a face that’s dead behind the eyes, then you’ll have succeeded in making a very competent technical illustration.  Well done you - get some practice with these, so you can reproduce them when requested, but don't put them in the portfolio!  If you engineer a lighting situation that allows you more freedom, you can concentrate more on the performance within the frame, and you stand a much better chance of capturing a memorable shot, without the constricting feeling of knowing you and your subject can’t move very far before ending up in the dark! 

You can often use ambient light for this - open shade or overcast being some of the best options - or design a lighting rig that allows you to move around within your set.  Either way, remember that the lighting you choose to use is just one part of the image you’re creating, rather than the sole reason for shooting in the first place.